Lesson #1
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Phonology and Elements
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1. Lesson #1
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Welcome to lesson one! Glārosat is a language spoken by the people living on the plainsland in the west of the continent Maaksómil. The area is home to gentle, rolling hills, statuesque coastal cliffs, rain-soaked flatlands, and wooded plains to the north. The folk are friendly, with strong matrilineal family values.In this lesson, we'll cover the sounds of the language and how it's written (phonology and orthography), and have an overview of the language's genders (elements).
[top]Phonology
Glārosat is pronounced pretty much exactly as it's written. A letter has one sound associated with it (except r, which functions as a vowel and a consonant) and it always makes that sound (except e and a, when followed by i).
Vowels
Glārosat has five base vowels: "a", "e", "u", "i", and "r". Of these, "a", "e", and "u" have secondary forms, denoted by a bar over the top of the vowel (as in "ā"). Additionally, in the native script the vowels "o" and "ō" are formed by accenting "u" and "ū" respectively, so "o" is not considered a base vowel. Additionally, adding "i" to the vowels "a" and "e" create Glārosat's two diphthongs, as shown on the table below.
| Symbol | Sound | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | ball |
| ā | æ | bat |
| ai | ai | bite |
| e | ɛ | bet |
| ē | ɪ | bit |
| ei | e | bait |
| u | ə | butt |
| o | o | boat |
| ū | ʊ | book |
| ō | u | boot |
| i | i | beet |
| r | ɹ | bert |
Consonants
Glārosat does not recognize a distinction between voiced and unvoiced forms of consonants. The environment of the letter determines if it is voiced or unvoiced. For example, the word teibi, meaning "warm", becomes todeibi when describing a "sun" element noun and loteipi when describing a "soil" element noun. (More on elements later.) On the table below, consonants are grouped with their voiced and unvoiced counterparts.
| Symbol | Sound | Sample |
|---|---|---|
| p/b | p, b | pat, bat |
| m | m | mat |
| f/v | f, v | fat, vat |
| θ/ð | θ, ð | thigh, that |
| t/d | t, d | tie, dye |
| s/z | s, z | sigh, zed |
| n | n | ned |
| l | l | lead |
| c/j | ʃ, ʒ | shed, measure |
| k/g | k, g | kill, gill |
| ŋ | ŋ | ring |
| r | ɹ | ring |
Quiz Time!
Here are a few Glārosat words. How would you represent them in IPA?
Glārosat / ↺ /
teibi, warm / ↺ /
tūreiŋēt, ruler / ↺ /
ciradr, to hide / ↺ /
How would you spell these Glārosat words?
↺ , door /podoɹæ/
↺ , short /ləʃi/
↺ , lizard /ɹəsanmai/
↺ , to lose, to be defeated /bɪglepɹ/
[top]Elements
Glārosat nouns belong to one of four grammatical genders, called "elements" in English. Articles and adjectives agree in element with the noun; for example, "truth" (θaimeŋe) belongs to the sun element and "baby" (nokogone) is a soil element, so "the truth" is tū θaimeŋe while "the baby" is lū nokogone.
(Bonus sentence! "The baby speaks the truth." Lū nokogonēt tū θaimeŋei karelr.)
The four elements are soil/earth (nouns related to family, places, and the earth; represented by the letter l), sun/fire (nouns to do with heat, fire, passion and passionate emotions, and timekeeping; represented by the letter t), wind/air (nouns about relationships, people, and travel; represented by the letter s) and rain/water (nouns pertaining to water, society, change, and the moon; represented by the letter n).
The general rule to determine voicedness of a consonant is first consonant of a word unvoiced (where possible) and the rest of the consonants oppositely voiced (where possible). An adjective agrees with the noun it describes by taking an affix: lo- , to- , so- , or no- , depending on the element. As a result, adjectives are the most variably-voiced part of speech in Glārosat. To use our earlier example, to describe the truth as unpleasant, (kodji), you would say tr θaimeŋei togodji, but to describe the baby as unpleasant, it would come out lr nokogonēt lokotci.
Quiz Time!
How would you describe each of these nouns as "empty"? In Glārosat, the word for empty is cēgi.
Lū laskēt the empty castle
Tū luteisei the empty sky
Sū loŋabrmai the empty school
Nū θānēzagrā the empty harbor
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